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Jobs 2.0: EconSouth explores economic development in the rural south
Rural communities have traditionally lagged their urban cousins in terms of economic growth and jobs, a persistent challenge for policymakers. In "Wanted: Jobs 2.0 in the Rural Southeast," EconSouth magazine explores the hardships associated with creating jobs in the region's rural communities. As economic developers have found, it often takes more than tax incentives and inexpensive land to attract new employers. Read the article featuring SRDC Director Bo Beaulieu and don't miss his Q&A feature.
e-BEAT celebrates successful first year
The Mississippi State University Extension Broadband Education and Adoption Team (e-BEAT) has been responding to the broadband education and information needs of households, local governments, small businesses, public libraries, schools and others since its establishment in July 2011. A new brochure showcasing e-BEAT's important work, in collaboration with its partners, is now available.
Check out its first year accomplishment report.
Free webinar provides food safety info for small processors
The last eXtension Entrepreneurship webinar for 2012, "Best Practices in Food Safety for Processors," explores common regulatory issues and safe food handling requirements. Led by Londa Nwadike, UVM Extension Food Safety Specialist, the free training is set for Thursday, Dec. 13.
Get the details.
Community Development Society seeks proposals with Feb. 15 deadline
The SRDC encourages land-grant university colleagues and other key partners to consider taking part in the 2013 CDS Annual Meeting, "Beyond the Boundaries: Creating Innovation through Regional Collaboration," set for July 20-24 in Charleston, S.C. Get involved by submitting a proposal to showcase some of your important regional activities and strategies in the areas of economic development, health, education, local facilities/services, transportation, natural resources management or more. The deadline for submission for workshops, presentations, panel sessions and posters is Feb. 15, 2013.
Download the complete information.
Enhanced and updated USDA energy website makes information easy to access
The USDA last week launched its updated Energy Web site. The site contains agricultural, economic, and social data on renewable energy to assist stakeholders, public users, state and local government in identifying opportunities, activities and USDA's projects in renewable energy. The Energy Web information is available through several associated online tools, such as USDA Energy Investment Maps, the Renewable Energy Tool, Energy Matrix, Investment Projects Reports, as well as helpful state links to energy resources within individual states.
Check it out.
Extension programs, now a century old, remain relevant as they face new challenges, speaker says
Over the past century, cooperative-extension programs have been among the best-known public services offered by land-grant universities. Waded Cruzado, president of Montana State University, in a speech at the annual conference of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities laid out some of the challenges that extension programs face in the 21st century: Advocates for those programs will need to remind the public of extension's relevance, and extension programs themselves will have to adapt to a world that has different cultural demographics, different agricultural structures, and more ubiquitous technology, compared to when cooperative extension was founded, in 1914.
Read more.
USDA awards first grants to increase local foods in eligible schools
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today announced more than $4.5 million in grants for 68 projects, including those in 10 Southern states, to connect school cafeterias with local agricultural producers. The first-ever USDA Farm to School grants will help schools respond to the growing demand for locally sourced foods and increase market opportunities for producers and food businesses.
Read more.
Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (PAWC)
70 Years of Partnership and Struggle for Agricultural & Rural Development in the Southern Region, Nation, and World
December 2-4, 2012
Tuskegee University, Alabama
http://pawc.info/70th-professional-agricultural-workers-conference
Download Call for Papers (Abstract due Oct. 20)
WEBINAR: Best Practices in Food Safety for Processors
Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 at 2 p.m. (Eastern Time)
https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/etc-cop
Londa Nwadike, UVM Extension Food Safety Specialist
Explore common regulatory issues and safe food handling requirements. Geared to new producers and those considering a food processing business, this free presentation will provide information on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), which are the basic sanitary and processing requirements necessary to ensure the production of safe and wholesome food. They are a key pre-requisite for HACCP programs and are essential to meeting FDA and USDA food safety requirements.
WEBINAR: Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage
Friday, Dec. 14 at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time)
https://southern.ilinc.com/register/cmzvjbt
Robert Atkinson, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President
The book, Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage, has become a must-read for anyone interested in technology-based economic development. Author Robert Atkinson, President of ITIF, will present the concepts behind the book in the free webinar. The book "delivers a critical wake-up call: a fierce global race for innovation advantage is under way, and while other nations are making support for technology and innovation a central tenet of their economic strategies and policies, America lacks a robust innovation policy. Unless the United States enacts public policies to reflect this reality, Americans face the relatively lower standards of living associated with a noncompetitive national economy."
Southern SAWG Conference
Practical Tools & Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms
January 23-26, 2013
Little Rock, Arkansas
http://www.ssawg.org/january-2013-conference/
Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual Meeting
Social Stabilization in the Twenty-First Century: The Role of Rural Communities
Feb. 2-5, 2013
Orlando, Florida
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/auxiliary/srsa/SRSA.htm
New Partner for Smart Growth Conference
Building Safe, Healthy, Equitable and Prosperous Communities
Feb. 7-9, 2013
Kansas City, Missouri
http://www.newpartners.org/
9th Annual Tri-State Diversity Conference
Bridges to Cultural Inclusion
February 21-22, 2013
Hebron, Kentucky
http://ces.ca.uky.edu/tristatediversityconference/index.html
Community Development Society Annual Conference
Beyond the Boundaries: Creating Innovation through Regional Collaboration
July 21-24, 2013
Charleston, South Carolina
http://www.comm-dev.org/
Call for Submissions (Deadline: Feb. 15, 2013)
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Georgia
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/college/docs/Position%20Announcement%20September%202012.pdfJob announcements and other items of interest may be sent to Meaghan Gordon for possible inclusion in future issues.
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